Not necessary to walk the last 100 kms in one stretch

[JohnnieWalker]

Some users may remember a question which was posted some time ago:

I'm currently working as an English teacher here in Madrid, and I'm going to do my first camino on the Camino Frances. However, due to time constraints of returning to the US after the school year and my work schedule, I will not be able to do the whole camino straight through. I'm going to do it in chunks during my long weekends and holidays, anywhere from 3 days of walking up to 7 during my Holy Week vacation. My question is, will I still qualify for the compostelano? I'm going to walk the whole way and not skip any stages, but I probably won't be able to do the last 100km all during the same time. I'll probably have to break them up into two 3 day walks on different weekends. Thanks for your help, I've already learned so much from reading other posts!

The answers which were given, in particular by me, concluded that to obtain a compostela the last 100 kms must be walked continuously. In giving the answer I was quoting the advice which has been given by the Confraternity of St James in the UK for a considerable period of time.
However it is not the case that to qualify for a compostela you have to walk the last 100 in consecutive days - the ONLY thing you have to do is walk the last 100 kms and have sellos (preferably at least 2 per day).
Therefore if a pilgrim decided to take a day off or indeed decided to leave the Camino at a point within the last 100 kms they could resume their journey at another time. What they are asked to do is to obtain a sello at the place they stopped with the date and obtain a sello from the same place with the date they started again.
Many Spanish pilgrims particularly people in Galicia complete the last 100 kms over a few weekends and the view of the Pilgrims’ Office is that this is perfectly in order.
The Pilgrims’ Office in Santiago has confirmed this to the CSJ.

My apologies for the erroneous information given in the past.

John

 

[ivar]

This is very useful information. Thanks John!!

 

[methodist.pilgrim.98]

I suspect John that the confusion comes from the source of the information.

Most members of CSJ will be flying in from other parts of the world. We are not going to walk for a couple of days and then return home to return a weekend later. When Ryanair flew from Liverpool I could have flown in on a Saturday, walked till Monday, flown home Tuesday morning and then returned to complete the section the next weekend. No, not really.

The point was stressed by the Confraternity so that no one got to SDC and had their compostella refused because they had failed to walk the last 100km. The reality was that for most of us that meant completing it in one go.

However, if I am ever taken to bunk off for a day due to illness I will make sure I get my credential stamped to show that I didn't jump a section.